Huckabee key to ticket, leader says

Janet Folger, a conservative Christian leader from South Florida, said Wednesday that John McCain's hopes of winning the presidency hinge on his selecting Mike Huckabee as his running mate.

Folger said Huckabee is the one who can "capture the heart and the base of the Republican Party. He's the only candidate, I believe, who can really galvanize and unify the party.

"Without the heart of the party you cannot win the White House. And by choosing Mike Huckabee, John McCain can do that."

Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and ordained Baptist minister, stayed in the Republican presidential contest through Tuesday's primaries, when McCain won enough delegates to win the nomination.

Folger is president of Dania Beach-based Faith2Action. From 1997 to 2002, she was director of the Center for Reclaiming America, which was affiliated with Coral Ridge Ministries. It later closed.

She served as co-chairman of the Huckabee campaign's Faith and Family Values Coalition and was on the campaign trail with him last week in Ohio, her home state. Folger sees Huckabee as a future Republican presidential nominee. "He is the new conservative leader."

Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4550. Read the Broward political blog every weekday at www.sun-sentinel.com/browardpolitics

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